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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Pao de Queijo

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge took us on a trip to beautiful Brazil! Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! taught us how to make Pao De Queijo, tasty cheese buns that make the perfect snack or treat, and that will make your taste buds samba!

I had never heard of this treat prior to the challenge. I had seen tapioca powder in Whole Foods before but had never bought it. The only other pure starch recipe I had tried is dudali a dessert made with arrowroot powder. Pao de Queijo is a tea time snack popular in Brazil. It is light and fluffy light a cheese puff and a lot more flavorful. One is never enough!

I bought barely two cups of the tapioca powder. I decided to cut the recipe in half. Normally I copy the ingredient list, cut each one by half and then follow this new list. Since there were only a handful of ingredients I did not do this. Unfortunately, I forgot to cut the milk by half and added a whole cup. I realized what I had done only when I had added it to the tapioca powder. Instead of a crumbly mixture I got a soft dough. I had no tapioca powder to fix the problem so I continued with the recipe.

The texture may have been affected a little but otherwise no harm done. The puffs were light and delicious. There were bits of cheese browned on the surface that enhanced the taste. Thank you Renata for an awesome challenge!

In a pan add the milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. In a bowl sift the tapioca. Mix the milk mixture into the tapioca. Combine with a fork to form a crumbly mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients with the eggs and mix until all the ingredients are combined.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Pull small portions of the dough and form small balls. Place them on a parchment paper lines baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

If you plan to bake them later place the baking sheet in the freezer until the dough is frozen. Transfer to a freezer safe ziploc and store in the freezer until needed. When ready to bake preheat the oven and place the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake as directed earlier.